Ministerio Roca Solida, Inc. v. United States
The U.S. Claims Court granted in part and denied in part the U.S. government's motion for summary judgment in a challenge against FWS for rerouting spring waters that had previously flowed through church property into a restoration channel in an effort to save a native fish species. The church argue...
Idaho Conservation League v. Wheeler
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's decision not to issue financial responsibility requirements for the hard-rock mining industry. Environmental groups argued the decision violated CERCLA by wrongly interpreting the term "risk" in the operative provisions as limited to the risk of taxpayer-funded response...
Knick v. Scott, Pennsylvania, Township of
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated a dismissal of a landowner's challenge to a town ordinance on takings grounds. The landowner argued the ordinance, which requires cemeteries on public and private property to be kept open and accessible to the public during daylight hours, effected a taking of her prop...
Welty v. United States
The Federal Circuit affirmed a dismissal of landowners' lawsuit against the government for flooding that resulted when a federal land conservation program induced an adjacent landowner to build and maintain a levee. The landowners argued that the flooding, which rendered their land unfit for cultiva...
Puntenney v. Iowa Utilities Board
A state high court affirmed a lower court denial of landowners' and an environmental group's petition to review a decision by the Iowa Utilities Board authorizing a company to use eminent domain to build a crude oil pipeline. The landowners and group argued the pipeline did not serve the "public con...
Gold King Mine Release in San Juan County, Colorado on August 5, 2015
A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...